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To complete the tale of occurrences of peirazo in Hebrews, one more
reference must be included. In Hebrews 5:13 we find the negative, apeiros,
where it is translated `unskilful', which accords with the classical
rendering `untried' and `inexperienced' and with the LXX usage:
`Surely they shall not see the land, which I sware unto their fathers;
but their children which are with Me here, as many as know not good or
evil, every inexperienced (apeiros) youth, to them will I give the
land; but none who have provoked Me shall see it'
(LXX Num. 14:23).
The reader will recognize the influence of this LXX rendering in
Hebrews 5:13,14, where the unskilful `babe' is contrasted with the `perfect'
(A.V. full age), who discerns `good and evil'.
As they stand, the words `yet without sin' in Hebrews 4:15, suggest to
the English reader `yet without sinning', as if our Lord was actually tempted
to steal, to murder, to commit adultery, but resisted. We only allow
ourselves
to write this in order to bring this doctrine and its consequences into the
light, for there is no necessity so to translate or interpret the words
choris hamartias. In his Lexicon, choris is rendered by Dr. Bullinger
`apart, asunder, apart from'. It comes from chorizo, `to put asunder', `to
separate', as in Matthew 19:6 and Romans 8:39. In Hebrews itself we read,
concerning the Saviour, that He was `holy, harmless, undefiled, separate
(chorizo) from sinners' (Heb. 7:26).
Dr. John Owen quotes the Syriac Version of Hebrews 4:15 as reading `sin
being excepted'. J. N. Darby reads `sin apart' and Rotherham reads `apart
from sin'.
The positive witness of the epistle to the Hebrews as a whole, and of
this expression in particular, is that the temptation referred to in the
words `tempted in all points' refers to the testings and trials of the
pilgrim on his journey through the wilderness of this world, as he presses on
to perfection; it does not refer to, or include, temptations to sin, but
rather to the testings and trials of faith.
Our examination of the usage of the words `tempt' and `temptation' in
the epistle to Hebrews leaves us with no doubt but that the apostle had in
mind the temptations that beset `pilgrims and strangers' in maintaining their
`confession' or `profession', and that the words `tempted in all points like
as we are' are limited to that aspect of truth. It would be neither fair nor
sound exegesis however to suppose that there is no other aspect of this
subject in the Scriptures. In order, therefore, to present the teaching of
the Word as completely as possible, let us consider further aspects of this
theme.
As we have commenced with an epistle addressed to the Hebrews, let us
continue with the epistles of the Dispersion, namely, that of James and those
of Peter, and see whether these introduce a different line of teaching from
that of the epistle to the Hebrews.
`My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations'
(Jas. 1:2).